Security guard card in United States

What Education/Training Do You Need to be a Security Officer?

Choosing a career can feel overwhelming, especially when you are a young adult with your whole life ahead of you and seemingly limitless career choices to consider. As you ponder your options, one question may arise frequently:

What level of education do I need to pursue a career in that field?

If your education stopped with high school, despite your best efforts, many careers may seem inaccessible, leading to disappointment and frustration. However, not all rewarding professional careers require higher education, and some are looking for smart, hard-working people who may not have a traditional educational background. If this describes you, the field of private security may be a promising career option.

Private security is a growing field with lots of opportunities. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts that there will be 144,000 open jobs in private security each year for the next decade. With that many positions needing people to fill them, there will be a strong demand for security officers, including those with little or no experience who are seeking to get their start in the field.

BLS notes that security officer jobs are regularly held by those with a high school diploma or equivalency, and some are even open to those who never finished high school. However, as with any field of work, the better qualified the candidate, the higher salary that he or she can demand.

At Top Gun, we want you to be a successful private security officer. Our passion is making our students the best trained and most competent applicants that a hiring manager is going to see in her or his stack of resumes. Our specialized training helps even those new to the field of security learn the skills and habits that security officers need to be effective in their jobs. Depending on the state, having Top Gun training certification on your resume often meets state-mandated requirements for security officer training, helping you stand out from other job applicants. And in states that don’t require training, a Top Gun certification shows that you’re serious about your career in security and will be a dedicated professional. You will be someone they want to hire.

To learn more about Top Gun’s training opportunities, please click here.